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Game

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Starting Class

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Japanese

English

“I have this power for better or worse, and I know how to fight. Don't ask me to sit by while my friends, my family, and my country are in danger.”—Ricken to Maribelle in their B-Rank support conversation.

Contents

Ricken is one of the youngest members of Chrom's Shepherds, and acts as the group's mascot. Ricken hails from a noble family like Maribelle; not much is known about them, but recent financial issues caused them to lose much of their wealth. His supports with Robin reveals that he joined the Shepherds to help restore his family's status, but he does not exactly know how to achieve such a thing just yet. He also carries a signet ring passed down to him by his parents to be given for his future wife.

Humorously, it is suggested by the Future Past conversations that his efforts to grow taller succeed. If Ricken is Laurent's father, it also reveals that wind magic was his weakest elemental magic.

When Maribelle was kidnapped by Gangrel, Ricken asked to join Chrom for the battle. However, Chrom asked him to stay back since he was too young. Ricken ignored the order and followed behind Chrom's army to Border Pass. When Aversa was about to kill Maribelle, Ricken stepped in, casted a Wind spell and rescued her. Ricken then went on to protect Maribelle until they could reunite with Chrom's army shortly after. Afterwards, after seeing Ricken's abilities, Chrom allowed him to join the army.

After the war, Ricken realized his own childish behaviors, quickly matured and became a mage of the highest order.

As one of the youngest members of Chrom's army, Ricken is a typical child, yet he hates being treated as such. Ricken seeks to grow up as quickly as possible, though he is overly sensitive about his height. Despite his young age he is quite studious, able to learn and grow from everyone in the army and soon realizes that he is growing up in his own way. He is worried about his family since his motivations to remain in Chrom's army is to bring his family back to good stature. He also looks up to Chrom as his role model and constantly tries to prove his worth.

He is distasteful of killing however, as seen in his support conversations, claiming to fight out of necessity, with his supports with Henry emphasizing this. When Henry talks about the lives of his former comrades killed by the Shepherds, Ricken becomes distressed at the fact that it reminded him of the fact that the Plegians weren't "faceless blobs".

Ricken is the second mage in the game, joining three chapters after Miriel is recruited. While he has slightly lower Magic, Skill and Speed growths as compared to Miriel, his Luck, Defence and Resistance growths are superior to hers. Also of note is the fact that Ricken possesses a much better Strength growth, allowing him to shine if reclassed to any of his physical unit options. Owing to his decent Defence, Ricken makes a very good Sage, as he will be able to withstand physical attacks better than Miriel can. Even so, as a Mage unit, it is not recommended for him to be overly involved in direct melee combat.

Ricken's Skill is lower than that of Miriel's, although this is compensated for by the presence of the Focus skill, which will allow him to land critical attacks when allies are absent in the immediate vicinity. To better harness this skill, Ricken should be made to strike enemy targets before the rest of his allies do. Further amplifying his combat usefulness is the Tomefaire skill that he can potentially learn as a Sage, which will enhance the strength of his magic-based attacks.

If class-changed into a Dark Knight, Ricken's Strength growth is noticeably superior to Miriel's, and he should thus be selected to function as a balanced physical and magical Dark Knight unit between the two. Ricken can learn the Slow Burn skill in this class, which will aid in gradually enhancing his Hit and Dodge rates. He will also be able to learn the Lifetaker skill as a Dark Knight, serving as the only regenerative ability that he can potentially lay claim to. With his low defenses, Lifetaker can make a huge difference when Ricken is caught in tight situations, helping to relieve healer units from constantly healing him.

Ricken's secondary class options are Cavalier and Archer. Both of these classes are based on physical damage, and since Ricken will not be a game-changing unit in these classes due to his low strength, he should return to his Mage classes in the end. The Cavalier skill, Discipline, is great to help Ricken build skills if considering to keep him in the Dark Knight class. The two promotions of Cavalier, the Paladin and Great Knight, also offer helpful skills for him. From the Paladin branch, Aegis shaves off tome, bow and dragonstone damage by half if it activates, helpful against strong magic or bow users. From the Great Knight branch, Luna, when combined with his already high magic stat if left in the Sage class, can make him an especially powerful unit against high resistance units. The Dual Guard+ skill is helpful for protecting weak units and should also be grabbed to be used with a unit that has a good support rank with him.

Ricken lacks much strength, and thus can have problems being a consistent Archer compared to the standard archer, Virion. However, some of the Archer's skills can also prove useful in his Mage class. The easily obtainable Skill +2 is a quaint little skill to make up for the lower skill growth than Miriel, though it will lose effectiveness after a few instances of reclassing. Prescience is good to have for him as an advantage when attacking. Sniper Ricken will not need to level up to level 15 to gain Bowfaire unless he is kept as a bow-using class, however Hit Rate +20 is worth getting as it will almost ensure a 100% hit chance on the enemy, especially on harder difficulties. Bowbreaker from Bow Knight can be useful if Ricken is attacked by enemy bow users and makes him a good Archer killer in any class he is in.

While continuing to study magic, Ricken realized how childish some of his actions had been. The sting of that revelation caused him to redouble his efforts, and soon he was a mage of the highest order.

In Ricken's B-Rank support conversation with Maribelle, when she asks about a wound on his leg, Ricken brushes it off, saying "Oh, this is nothing! Just a…flesh wound." This is possibly a Monty Python reference and alludes to the famous line said by The Black Knight in their film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

In his C-Rank support conversation with Nowi, Chrom makes an appearance talking to Ricken about burnings tents, this marks the only time Ricken can talk with Chrom in Awakening, not counting Summer Scramble.

Ricken is also one of two male characters in Awakening to have been voiced by a woman in the Japanese version and played by a man in the English dub, a trait shared with Henry, who is also from Awakening. He also shares this trait with Fates' Hayato and Percy, as well as Gaiden/Echoes: Shadows of Valentia'sKliff.

In Ricken's S-Support with Robin, Id~(Serenity), is not played. Instead "Ha ha! Yes, it will take some getting used to!" is played, the standard S-Support theme for any S-Support not involving Robin. Ricken shares this trait with Cordelia.

In the cutscene in which he saves Maribelle, the animation of his tome is Rexcalibur, contrasting with his starting tome, Elwind.